. >> guest: that's a very interesting question and rumsfeld smylie sean ship with the neocons i think is a very important part of his time as secretary because he and up surrounded by a number of prominent members of the neoconservative community and they included his deputy, paul wolfowitz, the chief of the top civilian policy official at the pentagon, doug feith but rumsfeld himself is not a new conservative. many of his views may overlap. they do depart one critical area which is the notion of spreading democracy and around the world. rumsfeld is always very uncomfortable with that notion particularly as a rationale going to war against iraq and argued to try to keep it out of some of the rhetoric justifying the invasion. he wasn't particularly successful. the white house embraced that notion along with other rationale they offered involving weapons of mass destruction and so on but when i press rumsfeld and why it was he ended up so surrounded by neocons and he didn't have a very convincing answer to that but he didn't seem to me as if it was exactly a strategy on his part. he ten

to say that they were not neocons at the beginning of the era is ridiculous.secondly, in terms of the directive he was trying to enforce or accomplish from george w. bush with regard to military was what? i heard he was trying to install privatization which he did wonderfully in the army and pentagon. guest: i was not saying that wolfowitz, pearl, fife were not neconocons, but rumsfeld was noa car-carrying trouble. he found it useful to be associated with them some. . to have them in his upper ranks at the pentagon was also useful. but he was not a card-carrying neo-conservative. as for transformation, there is a lot to be included under what he intended. part of the problem was that by the time he left it was a buzzword that the meeting seemed to encompass almost anything anyone wanted it to was trying to affect change at the pentagon. host: he was an eagle scout. but you wrote that he almost quit? guest: he did almost quit. he was very involved in scouting throughout his high school career and is now very proud of the fact he stayed at it. he was not going t

it dick cheney, his daughter, and all the neocons want to keep the invasion's going forever let them put on the uniforms and go

graham obviously is a neocon and he said we do not want our neocons conflicting with theirs. this is a man that won the nobel peace -- peace prize. i think he knows what he is talking about and i agree with him completely and with the people, that they do need our help, they need help from the u.n. i have not seen anyone picketing the president. i have not seen anyone asking the president to help. they want help from us, as in support, for example, people can reset the times on their computers or on twitter to tehran time, that helps. host: how does that help? caller: being able to find people. i did not have as much computer expertise. i'm a recent twitter user. i have a little troublesome * -- sometimes. i used to be a computer geek, the ninth 52 years old. not that i'm against new technology but i am a little slow on the uptake on this one. host: @ thank you for updating all of us. anna from washington, d.c. come on independent line. caller: i think the cia is doing what it knows how to do best -- this is what we should do. this is the cia at its best. if you think america

bradley graham felt when he found out that donald rumsfeld, wolfowitz in the other neocons promoted saddam hussein, kept telling us that he had these weapons of mass destruction when the man was contained for 12 years? now they have ridden off into the sunset with big money in their bank accounts. i like to know when they're going to give some of the money back to the american people because now we are suffering? guest: concerning weapons of mass destruction, clearly that is misjudgment. bush and all the other officials will have to continue to address that misjudgment of the weapons of mass destruction. donald rumsfeld did believe that report. of all the senior officials if he should have known better or at least question that intelligence more aggressively than he did. he tried to warn against believing too much in the conventional wisdom, not challenging enough assumptions and intelligence reports. he was very fond of disturbing to people the preface of a book on pearl harbor which warns against falling into this kind of conventional thinking and not challenging conventional wisdom suff

graham. >> guest: i was not saying that wolfowitz, pro-and pfeiffer not neocons. they were. rumsfeld was never really had a card-carrying neoconservative. he was at times a fellow traveler and the found it worth, useful to be associated with them to sign their letters and before becoming defense secretary of serious issues, and to have them in his upper ranks of the pentagon, but he himself was not a card-carrying neoconservative. and, as for the transformation, and there is a lot that could be included under what rumsfeld intended with transformation and part of the problem i think was that, i think by the time he left, it was the buzzword, whose meaning seem to encompass almost anything anybody wanted it to who was trying to effect change of the pentagon. >> host: donald rumsfeld doesn't eagles you wrote that he almost quit. what maid internet around? >> guest: he did almost quit. he was very involved in scouting for of his high-school career and now is very proud of the fact that he stayed at it. and, was not going to be a quitter and was determined to see it through. and

they have tried to blame reagan as their own despite the fact that neocons trashed reagan from his first days in 1981 until the time he left office in 1989. they said he loved to trade more than he loved human rights and that he dealt with the soviets too much. they were enraged u.s. trying to strike arms control deals, but reagan's rhetoric was an option of of hamas, but reagan knew what we needed after jimmy carter showed weakness across the globe. reagan knew we needed to talk tough, but reagan was a realist. he only send our troops into battle to times. >> host: talk about the evil empire and the whole revolution of candor he was speaking truth as american president for the first time in a generation about who the soviets were etc. but let us remember he does not invade eastern europe. you know what i mean? the use diplomacy, honesty, the force of going forward and explaining the way to go. >> guest: in usa realistic despite the fact that his rhetoric was pretty heated for the time. the foreign-policy establishment was shocked, but you look at everything and go over eight years, he w

it dick cheney, his daughter, and all the neocons want to keep the invasion's going forever let them put on the uniforms and go over there. host: jack is joining us from minnesota. good morning. caller: my thoughts are that it is just about time. please do not cut me off. i have waited for 30 days. it is about time. if we in fact a liberated them to use that quaint phrase that the bush administration used, we should have been able to leave in about -- two or three months after we invaded? this has been seven years. the real reason of course the weak and then it was not for liberation bet for oil. let me state a few facts. the me emphasize that assertion. we have been using iraqi oil since 2003, 2004. that is the first fact. fact number tworay hunt, the son of the invidious h.l. hunt, the bigamist and oil autocrat has begun production in mosul. the third thing, now we have gotten our government in iraq to open outside contracts outside of the country at extremely favorable rates for u.s. firms and others. this was for oil. that makes it a criminal offense in my view and in view of man

gentleman are transmuted into the technocratic elite and the action intellectuals of camelot, straussian, neoconsand other configurations and without the document prevails. samuel huntington is an example that you heard. on a more hopeful note the popular struggle continues to clip its wings quite impressively in the wake of 1960s activism which had quite an affect on civilizing society and raised the prospects for further progress to a much higher plane. it's one of the reasons it's time of troubles. too much of a civilizing effect. well, what the west sees as the crisis, namely, the financial crisis, that will presumably be patched up somehow or other. but leaving the institutions that created it pretty much in place, a couple days ago the treasury department, as you read, permitted early t.a.r.p. repayments, which actually reduced capacity -- it was touted as giving money back to the public. in fact, as was pointed out right away it reduces the capacity of banks to lend although it does allow them to pour money into the pockets of the few who matter. and the mood on wall street was captured by